Gallivan

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/200 second, f/6.3, ISO 100

Tables Turned

After photographing young model Kate on the streets of Salt Lake City last weekend, I handed her my camera on the way back (it was almost as big as she is) and let her shoot away. Here's a shot she caught of me 'working it' for the camera.

And here's one of my fellow photographer Julie horsing around after the shoot. I must say that Kate handled the camera well and captured some nice moments.

Canon 5D, Canon 70-200 f/2.8L lens - 1/1600 second, f/2.8, ISO 160

Kate with the Matching Cap

Canon 5D, Canon 70-200 f/2.8L lens - 1/640 second, f/2.8, ISO 160

Where Tungsten and Daylight Meet

Today's image is another shot from last Saturday's photography class excursion to the Great Salt Lake. The combination of the blue background and the normally toned bride were achieved completely in camera by lighting the model with several handheld tungsten lights and adjusting the white balance to the corresponding temperature. The naturally lit background then became the wonderful blue tone displayed in the image.

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/30 second, f/4, ISO 160

Photographing People with Kenneth Linge

This past Saturday wrapped up a three part teaching series that Kenneth Linge has taught this year called Photographing People, Parts 1, 2 and 3. I feel privileged to have spent time as a student in all of these classes. Anyone that has followed this blog for a while knows that Kenneth is a master portrait photographer that openly shares his techniques with the students that attend his seminars.

In part one and two of the series (held earlier this year), the students spent the majority of the time receiving instruction from and working with Kenneth (along with his wife MaryLyn) in a classroom environment. Part three was a departure from this setting, as we were given the opportunity to put our skills to work and venture out into the real world.

For the first part of the day, the students were paired up, given a model and instructed to head out into the downtown area of Salt Lake City to find locations to photograph. I captured the image of Brittanie (above) during this part of the class. It was taken just off of a sidewalk against a red door.

When the afternoon turned toward evening, the group of students, models and instructors headed out to the Great Salt Lake for some twilight shooting. As the sun set we had the opportunity to continue to put the techniques we'd learned to work in this beautiful setting.



By using a combination of natural light, reflectors and tungsten lights we were able to create some rather unique portraits. The above black & white image of Brittanie standing on the shore is an example of the use of a combination of these three methods of lighting.



Over the past year I have attended a total of eight days of training with Kenneth and MaryLyn Linge. Even though the teaching was aimed primarily at portrait and wedding photography, I can honestly say that the greatest skill I have received from them is a greater ability to see light as it relates to photography. This fluency carries over into ALL aspects of my photography and has greatly helped me in my stock photography business. I look forward to continuing to learn from them in the future.

To learn more about Kenneth Linge and The International School of Photography, visit his website at KennethLinge.com.

Thousand Dollar Flower

This simple capture of yellow flowers just became my first image on iStockphoto to generate over $1,000.00 in income. Regular readers might remember the dumpy surroundings in which this shot was taken (read about it here).

The overwhelming majority of my stock portfolio feature people in lifestyle scenarios and not nature shots since people photos simply sell better. iStock even discourages new contributors from uploading flower photos (they do so anyway), so I find it humorous that this shot has done so well.

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/125 second, f/4, ISO 100

Through the Window

Yesterday's wedding shoot in Salt Lake City included rain, snow, wind, sunshine and lots of cold. In spite of the weather, I'm pleased with the images captured.

I worked with videographer Matt of Happily Ever After Video yesterday. It was great working with Matt again (I've worked with him one other time). One of the nice things about working with another artist is the sharing of ideas. The through the window pose featured in today's image was suggested by Matt. It is such a simple shot, but works quite well. I really like the voyeuristic feel that the window foreground adds.

It's several weeks before my next wedding shoot, so it's back to putting on my Stock Photographer hat and getting on to creating more images.

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/160 second, f/4, ISO 100

Bethany

Canon 5D, Canon 70-200 f/4L lens - 1/200 second, f/5, ISO 100

Wedding Crasher

It's the beginning of the wedding season and I'm right in the middle of the two weddings that I am photographing this week. Even though I enjoy the work, I am not looking to make wedding photography my primary business (that was the eighties). With that being said, I do shoot several each year.

In keeping today's image with the Wedding theme, I'm featuring my fellow photoblogger Bryan Jones as he (we?) crashed a wedding reception on a recent Photowalking Utah event. (Actually, we behaved ourselves and kept out of the way of the guests).

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/100 second, f/4, ISO 100

Kim

Canon 5D, Canon 70-200 f/4L lens - 1/200 second, f/4.5, ISO 100

My image in use on USPS.com - Legally

Last week I wrote about the Wall Street Journal illegally using one of my images (read here). Today I'm featuring another high profile website using my work, but this time legally.

I received an email over the weekend tipping me off to the use of my image of a graduate on USPS.com. The designer of the website purchased the image from my inventory on iStockphoto and implemented it into their design.

Since I have no direct contact with buyers of my stock images, I usually don't know where they are used. It's nice to come across them in the wild from time to time.

Baseball on Black

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/100 second, f/11, ISO 100

Behind the Scenes: Cafe Photo Shoot

Model Andrew enjoying a fresh cup

Last Saturday I did a photo shoot in a small Cafe`. The purpose of the shoot was to create images to add to my stock portfolio. My friend Jeremy came along to shoot some behind the scenes shots, so I thought I'd share a few of them along with the resulting final images.

On the shot above of Andrew, I used three lights. The main light was a large softbox positioned to camera right with a second softbox behind the model. A third light was used to light the background area.


High angle shot of Andrew at the counter


Model Kattie with the menu board

On this image of Kattie, I wanted to communicate 'Cafe', so I shot from a low view to include the large menu board in the top of the frame.


Low angle shot of Kattie with the menu board


Models Julie, Jessica and Kattie on the couch

For the three ladies enjoying their beverages on the couch, I wanted a high vantage point with the girls looking up. I always carry a small stepladder on my shoots for this purpose. As can be seen in the shot below, the extremely slick floor necessitated the use of a ladder stabilizer - namely Josiah.


Josiah offering some stability to my stepladder


Models Kattie, Cerrick and Josiah at the counter

I used a couple of first-time models (at least for me) on this shoot. Both Josiah (right) and Kattie (left) in the above image did a great job. I look forward to working with them in the future.



And lastly, it just wouldn't be a shoot without Alyssa (below). I have photographed her more than any other model and we work well together. Here she is with another regular of mine, Andrew.


Frequent models Andrew and Alyssa

As you can see in the background, this cafe is located inside a climbing gym. Definitely an interesting location.



As always, I cannot do what I do without the help of others. Involved in this shoot were models Andrew, Alyssa, Cerrick, Jessica, Josiah, Julie and Kattie along with assistants Michelle and Erik. It is always great to get to shoot on location, and this shoot wouldn't have been possible without the great folks at Momentum Climbing Gym and Cafe opening their doors for us.

To see the full set on my iStockphoto portfolio, click here.

Special thanks to Jeremy Hall for taking the behind the scenes images.

The Wall Street Journal lifted my image!

I'm a little annoyed right now. I just found that the Wall Street Journal took an image from this site (LeggNet.com) for use on their own "Deal Journal" blog. What's the problem? Well, it states on the bottom of every page here:

Photographs and text copyright 2005-2008 Rich Legg, Inc. All rights reserved.
Reproduction or redistribution in any form without prior written permission is strictly prohibited.

They never contacted me for permission. Had they done so, they would have been directed to purchase the image on iStockphoto.com. I see this behavior from small blogs from time to time, but the Wall Street Journal? C'mon already!

I have sent them an email. Let's see how (or if) they respond.

UPDATE: I have been contacted by the author of the blog post on WSJ.com. She has taken down the image and apologized for its unauthorized use. We had a pleasant email exchange and I am confident that she won't make this mistake (using copyrighted photos on Flickr) again.

Tattoo Artist

Today's image is a sample from last Friday's Tattoo Artist photo shoot in Salt Lake City. Lighting was provided by a single Canon 430EX remotely triggered to the left of camera. I opted for a cross-processed effect to add a little 'edge' to the image.

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/160 second, f/4, ISO 100